The stigmatisation of parody as "the worst enemy" of creativity has been pervasive in our literary culture. Although recent theoretical approaches have compelled critics to rethink many received notions regarding the significance of contemporary parodic activity, the perception remains that parody existed only on the disreputable margins of earlier literary cultures. This study places parody firmly (if paradoxically) where it belongs: at the centre of the literary-creative process in much of the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Rev. Dr. Roger M. Pumphrey is an ordained minister in the International Council of Community Churches, Christ Catholic Church (Diocese of Boston), and The Southern Episcopal Church (U.S.A.). He is a Certified Chaplain and Licensed Professional Counselor. He received his clinical training in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Milwaukee Lutheran Hospital and his psychotherapy and counseling training at the Martin Center Residential Treatment Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the former Chief Chaplain of the Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital and served as Executive Director of R.E.A.C.H. Comprehensive Mental Health Clinic. He served as an adjunct professor of undergraduate and graduate courses on "Educating African American Males" and "At-Risk" students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies. "Many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many." - Matthew 24:5 In the twentieth century alone, more than one thousand so-called "false Christs" have appeared. Many are of the view that Father Divine was one of these. We read in 1st John 4:1: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Nothing is more timely or more needful than discernment in today's church - the ability to recognize truth and distinguish it from error. In Revelation 3:11 Jesus is quoted again as saying, "Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."